It was an ordinary afternoon in Konoha Village. An old woman collapsed on the road.
The bag of eggs she was carrying fell, smashing and leaving many broken yolks on the ground.
The yolks, mixed with dust, looked particularly filthy.
"What's wrong with her?" a young man asked nearby, moving to help the old woman up.
His companion grabbed his shoulder firmly. "Look at the clan crest on her clothes!"
The young man looked closely, saw the Uchiha clan's fan emblem, and immediately stopped his impulse to help.
"It's an Uchiha... a damned Uchiha..." the young man muttered, glancing towards a section of the Konoha wall shrouded in scaffolding in the distance. He thought of his cousin who had died and shot a hateful look at the old Uchiha woman.
Damn Uchiha. They produced a traitor like Uchiha Madara who attacked Konoha.
During the Susano'o Catastrophe, the young man's cousin was killed by a White Zetsu.
If the Uchiha clan had merely produced a traitorous ninja, that might have been one thing. Large ninja clans often had dark histories; it wasn't unheard of for one or two dissatisfied traitors to become rogue ninjas.
But the Uchiha clan had completely stayed out of the fight during the Susano'o Catastrophe; they didn't confront Uchiha Madara at all.
Could they not bring themselves to fight their former patriarch? Were they thinking of siding with their old leader, Uchiha Madara?
The entire Police Force had done only one thing during the catastrophe: evacuate civilians.
And they had acted like they were full of explosives, treating the civilians with an extremely poor attitude. With a rogue ninja attacking the village from outside, plus the urgent late-night evacuation, people were inevitably flustered and some lost their way. The Uchiha ninjas of the Police Force were extremely rude.
That night, more than 20 Konoha villagers died from stampedes alone.
Dying from being crushed by Madara's Susano'o was one thing, but over 20 people dying from poor management during the evacuation? How could they not resent the Uchiha Police Force?
Afterwards, the Hokage Building had posted a notice announcing disciplinary action against the Police Force.
Uchiha Kane, Chief of the Police Force, bore major responsibility for the failed civilian evacuation, and all responsible ninjas in the Police Force departments received demerits.
After a month of this fermenting, with certain forces adding fuel to the fire, the villagers' dissatisfaction with the Police Force had reached its peak.
Seeing an old Uchiha woman collapsed on the ground, not stepping forward to kick her a few times was something one could only attribute to their own high moral character.
The old woman lay face down on the ground. At first, she moaned, but soon, there was no sound at all.
It seemed her spine was broken.
Some Konoha villagers stopped and watched from a distance, frowning. Most villagers simply left.
Serves her right. Seeing the Uchiha clan in trouble is just too satisfying.
Uchiha Obito, on his way home from the Ninja Academy, saw the old woman collapsed in the middle of the main road.
He rushed towards her, shouting as he ran, "Why are you all just standing there? Why isn't anyone helping?"
After running more than ten steps, Obito suddenly froze.
Wasn't that... his grandmother?
The person he wanted to save wasn't a stranger; it was his own grandmother.
And the person everyone else was ignoring was also his grandmother.
Obito hurriedly sped up and threw himself down beside his grandmother.
Seeing it was truly her, Uchiha Obito's pupils constricted sharply.
"Grandma! Grandma!"
Obito tried to help his grandmother up, but found the angle of her waist was unnatural; it looked like her lumbar spine was broken.
"Someone help me! I can't lift her by myself!"
Obito turned his head, looking at the surrounding crowd.
"Auntie! I've watched your children for you! Please, can you help me?"
The auntie in the distance felt a momentary softness, but then remembered her own aunt who had died in the stampede, and didn't move.
Disappointed, Obito turned to another man.
"Uncle! I held the ladder for you once! Please, I'm begging you, help me!"
The man recognized Obito. Once, when he was repairing his eaves, Obito had held the ladder for him, making him late for school. But thinking of the Uchiha clan's terrible reputation, the man felt a surge of anger.
Obito's heart sank further. He looked at an old woman. "Granny, I've gotten your milk for you many times! Please, come help me, okay?"
The old woman started to step forward, but was stopped by her daughter-in-law behind her. The daughter-in-law stared with hatred at the Uchiha fan emblem on Obito's clothes.
She used to sell dango from a cart on the street, and her cart had been confiscated by the Uchiha Police Force with Violence.
Obito looked around, no longer seeking out specific individuals. Instead, he scanned the circle of people with a strange,hollow gaze.
Were these the neighbors he treated with such warmth every day?
On this path from home to school, his eyes were like radar, always finding people who needed help. He couldn't even remember how many people on this street had received his help.
He used to think he was important to the people on this street.
So... it was all fake! His help was fake! His feeling of being needed was fake!
A faint sound came from beside him.
"Obito... Obito..."
Obito quickly leaned down close.
His grandmother's final words reached him:
"Obito... you must live well... You never met your father and mother, but... they loved you very much, just as I love you... They had bad luck, died in the Great Ninja War, never got the chance to love you... Obito, you must live well..."
His grandmother's breathing grew weaker and weaker. She was kneeling on the ground, her hips in the air, her head lowered. Blood rushed to her brain, causing a cerebral hemorrhage. She died right there in the middle of the street.
"Grandma! Grandmaaaa...!"
Obito's vision blurred with tears.
"Ah! Grandma! Don't die...!"
A long time later, Obito finally accepted that his grandmother was dead.
Obito gently laid his grandmother flat on the road.
The wind blew a plastic bag and a trampled piece of paper, which landed on his grandmother's corpse.
Obito numbly reached out to block them, not wanting these dirty things to touch his grandmother.
But no matter how he tried, he couldn't stop all the bits of trash and debris.
He slowly stood up.
By now, a circle of people had gathered on the street.
Everyone stood frowning, looking coldly at Uchiha Obito in the center, and at the old woman's corpse on the ground.
Obito realized that his grandmother's cold corpse was the only source of warmth left for him.
In that moment, Obito felt as if everyone was very, very far away from him.
The circle of people around him rapidly receded into the distance.
It was as if he stood alone and helpless in the center of a vast, boundless plaza.
Isolated, terrified, and insecure.
The people standing around him seemed as small as ants.
In reality, it wasn't that the people had moved farther away; he had shrunk.
Rapid changes were occurring in Uchiha Obito's eyes.
The Two Tomoe swiftly changed, transforming into Three Tomoe.
The Three Tomoe spun rapidly, the black patterns merging, forming a pair of Mangekyō Sharingan.
A spiral, spatial ripple appeared around Uchiha Obito and his grandmother's corpse.
He and his grandmother's body vanished.
Six Uchiha Police Force ninjas arrived belatedly.
They reached the circular, empty space in the middle of the road, surprised to find that the old woman and the child they had seen from a distance had suddenly disappeared.
One Police Force ninja quickly rushed into the crowd, grabbed the auntie, and demanded, "Talk! What just happened here!"
The auntie struggled, but found the Police Force ninja was extremely rude, feeling like he would break her arm.
"I don't know! It has nothing to do with me! Let me go!"
The Police Force ninja increased the pressure on his grip. The auntie, in pain and with tears in her eyes, finally recounted roughly what had happened.
An Uchiha child saw his grandmother die, and then they vanished strangely?
When Uchiha Obito reappeared, he was already far outside Konoha Village.
He looked down at his grandmother's corpse, his eyes now filled only with ferocity.
After an unknown length of time, a White Zetsu slowly emerged from a large tree opposite him.
He looked into Uchiha Obito's eyes – a pair of beautiful Mangekyō.
"Obito, I've been looking for you, and it was so hard to find you. Come, come with me to see Lord Madara. Lord Madara will answer your questions, Lord Madara will give you the power for revenge..."
***
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(End of Chapter)